Helmed by German director Christian Ditter (“Wickie auf großer Fahrt;” Eng.: “Vicky and the Treasure of the Gods,” 2011) in his first English-language feature effort, “Love Rosie” is adapted from Irish novelist Cecilia Ahern’s sophomore novel “Where Rainbows End” (2004). 

The romantic dramedy stars Lily Collins (“The Blind Side,” 2009) and Sam Claflin (“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” 2013) as two best friends in a more than decade-long tryst with their feelings for each other. Sure, a lot does occur in the film’s narrative, but for the sake of brevity, this distillation should work just fine. 

For better or worse, it’s how Ditter and screenwriter Juliette Towhidi morph the epistolary narrative of Ahern’s novel anyway; it’s all distilled into what feels like a cliff-notes summary, with a few rather odd changes to make the adaptation feel more accessible to the young adult audience—a move that’s overall confusing considering it’s rated R.

A significant side effect of stuffing the broader story into its 102-minute runtime is that viewers aren’t allowed to absorb and process how its protagonists feel—which is a shame because the leads are phenomenal and help turn Alex and Rosie into charming, relatable everyday people. Claflin and Collins have fantastic chemistry, giving the strange star-crossed nature of their romantic conflict a sense of relative believability.

To her credit, Towhidi really tries. Her writing gives its narrative and the many twists and turns thrown onto both the protagonists and (by proxy) the film’s viewers a sense of randomness almost akin to how life happens to us. All the effort, however, is for naught because of how one scene rushes to the next—and so on—and nobody gets a chance to take a beat and immerse themselves in what could have been a progression of the many, many years of emotional friction its leads go through throughout their lives.

And it’s not like the movie half-asses its way through to the end—the production design aligns accurately with the timeline each section is set in. From your good old bulky laptops and Nokia bricks to the music supervisor bringing in the biggest hits from artists like Beyonce and Lily Allen, it isn’t difficult to see the commendable effort at hand by the makers of “Love, Rosie” to make the film as immersive as possible. Add to this the gorgeous cinematography by Ditter’s regular collaborator, Christian Rein, and you have the gloss of your friendly neighborhood saccharine romance.

Is the apparent change in narrative when adapting Ahern’s book at fault? Absolutely not; films and books are vastly different storytelling mediums, and filmmakers have a right to reinterpret and take the source of their adaptation in various interesting directions. The changes aren’t the problem—it’s how they reflect in the film’s overall narrative when viewed on its own, disconnected from the novel, where the problems begin.

Overall, save for excellent turns by its cast, gorgeous moving photography, and incredible production design, the hurried and overstuffed narrative is a fatal flaw of “Love Rosie.” This film could have been perfect comfort food but ends up being a frustrating collection of could haves, should haves, and would haves.